It’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to…

I am back in Los Angeles. I am a few days late on my blog entry, but it has been such a busy week for me.

In NYC I saw over 200 actors in 4 pre-read sessions and I brought over 60 actors for 4 roles to the director who I had for only two days. That’s around 15 choices per role, plus I threw in some actors I wanted the director to see for smaller roles. Now I wait for the director to make choices. But are they making choices? Nope. They want more. More options, more auditions, more lists. I have had over 20 sessions for this film. The budget of the film is under $700,000 dollars and they have seen the best talent in town. But they want more. What the producer and director don’t seem to understand is (and by the way, why don’t they read my lists?) there is no more! If they want to up the budget, yes there would be more choices, but for their SAG modified-low-budget film, the choices don’t stretch too far and if I told you some of the amazing, talented, name-y actors who came in for this film, you would be pleasantly surprised and shocked that they didn’t offer the roles out right away.

But still they want more. I get this from the producer: “Matt, maybe, there is an actor out there like (insert actor who makes over ten million per film) who wants to try something different. I mean all I know him from is from his action films.” I am thinking to myself, is this guy serious? His ego is so gigantically huge as to expect (actor who makes over ten million per film) to actually do his SAG MODIFIED LOW BUDGET FILM?!!! Of course when I say, “Stop wasting your time,” or “you are going down a path that will lead you to disappointment,” he doesn’t hear me. All he hears is that I am being negative. But I’m not. I know that for a fact, based on my professional experience having done 40 more films then you, Mr. Producer that I actually do know what I am doing!

But, I still check the availability of the actor (who makes over ten million dollars per picture) because that’s what he wants me to do. Guess what? He is available! Go ahead, make the offer…tick, tock…that is the sound of time wasting away any interest that actors may have had in your film, because they are auditioning for other films. Oh, didn’t you know? THERE ARE OTHER FILMS BEING MADE OUT THERE WHO ARE OFFERING MORE MONEY TO ACTORS, more money then SAG MODIFIED LOW BUDGET SCALE + 10%…so don’t cry to me when all of a sudden you’re a week out and you have no cast.

I’ll say it again: Actors respond to the script first. Then they look at the director, the producer, the budget, how much they are going to get paid, the amount of time they are going to have to be on set, the location, etc, etc…. Actors, agents and manager know what it means when they sign-up for a low budget film. The smaller the budget, the smaller the perks. Actors like perks, heck, I like perks. But on low-budget films there are no perks. The perk is the passion you have for the project. Actors, crew, myself, we have to respond to the material and the director, because that is all there is to respond to. We hope that the film turns out well, that the director knows what he is doing, that the editor can tell a story, that the sound guy wasn’t asleep on the 4th consecutive evening shoot on day 17 out of 21. We hope that the small independent film gets into a festival and we can all celebrate it, we hope that more then the people who buy tickets to the festival actually get to see the film. We hope.

I work on the films because I like the story and I am getting paid to do what I love to do, I just wish that the people in charge would listen to me without feeling threatened like I am taking their manhood away from them. You are still the big producer, I am just trying to report the truth, tell you the way it is, so that you can make the film with the best possible cast out there. I hope they listen.

Well, it’s Friday night and I will be 37 tomorrow. I am looking forward to the New Year. I have a lot of great scripts on my desk and I hope that many of them end up in festivals and on screen to be enjoyed by people other then my Mom and Dad. But if it’s just for them, then it is still worth it in the end.

So, happy birthday to me and go out and support your small independent films! A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into getting those films into theatres!